huridocs-tech Cyber Squatting Ruling

Edited/Distributed by HURINet - The Human Rights Information Network
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DATE=1/20/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CYBER SQUATTING RULING (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-258260
BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN
DATELINE=GENEVA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:

INTRO:  The World Intellectual Property Organization - the
W-I-P-O, which registers trademarks and copyrights - has
dealt a blow to so-called cyber squatters trying to get rich
by selling domain names on the Internet. Lisa Schlein in
Geneva reports that the organization has helped settle a
dispute in favor of the owner of an Internet address.


TEXT:  In a precedent-setting case, an arbitrator for the
World Intellectual Property Organization has ordered a
resident from (the western U-S state of) California to hand
over the domain name he had registered to its rightful
owner, the World Wrestling Federation.

The arbitrator ruled the man had no legitimate rights to the
name and had acted in bad faith by offering to sell the name
to the Wrestling Federation at a significant profit.

The Intellectual Property Organization's Assistant
Director-General, Francis Gurry, heads the arbitration and
mediation center.  He says a cyber squatter is a person who
appropriates someone else's identity in cyberspace.

            /// GURRY ACT ///

      So you take someone who has an established commercial
      identity really through a trademark, a well-known
      company's brand, for example, and someone that doesn't
      have any association with that trademark or brand
      decides to jump in and register it as a domain name in
      order to block the real owner of the identity from
      using that identity as their domain name.

            /// END ACT ///

Mr. Gurry says the cyber squatter usually follows up by
asking for a significant amount of money to transfer the
domain name to the real owner.  He says it is not possible
to estimate the sums involved. But, they can be enormous.

For example, he mentions that two years ago a Swiss life
insurance company paid 70-thousand dollars to recover its
name for Internet use.  In another instance, he says the
German car manufacturer, Porsche, went to court in the
United States last year to stop some three-hundred cyber
squatters from using its name for pornographic sites on the
web.

Mr. Gurry says a lot of money has been spent in chasing down
cyber squatters and in litigation. But, he says the problem
now is being reduced as a result of three factors.

            /// GURRY ACT ///

      One is significant litigation that has taken place
      over the last five years.  Another is this new dispute
      resolution procedure that is now in operation and that
      acts as a deterrent, we think, because it provides a
      quick and cheap means of getting a cyber squatter out.
      And, thirdly, there is legislation now in the United
      States, which imposes quite significant penalties for
      cyber squatting where you in bad faith take a
      well-known trademark or a trademark or the name of a
      famous person because that is something else that
      happens.

            /// END ACT ///

Mr. Gurry says he believes the new arbitration system will
curb the abuse of trademarks on the Internet. Under the new,
fast-track procedure, disputes have to be settled within 45
days.  The average cost is one- thousand dollars.  Eight
other cyber squatting disputes are pending. (Signed)

NEB/LS/GE/JP




20-Jan-2000 12:37 PM EDT (20-Jan-2000 1737 UTC) NNNN

Source: Voice of America ..





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